The present invention relates generally to a local wireless device that communicates with a mobile station, and more particularly to a hearing aid that communicates with the mobile station via a short-range ad hoc wireless network.
The popularity of mobile stations, such as cellular telephones, personal data assistants (PDAs), etc., continues to increase each year. To maintain this trend, manufacturers continue to explore ways to make mobile stations appeal to a larger percentage of the population. One area of focus involves the use of local wireless devices, such as wireless headsets, with near-end mobile stations.
Current wireless headsets convert microphone signals to signals compatible with the short-range wireless network and transmit the processed signals to a near-end mobile station via the short-range wireless network. Similarly, the wireless headsets convert signals received from the near-end mobile station to signals compatible with a speaker in the wireless headset. Current wireless headsets do not include any additional processing. As a result, the near-end mobile station performs all interference processing, such as acoustic echo and/or environmental noise suppression. Because the sources of the acoustic echo and the environmental noise are in the wireless headset, the noise suppression performed by the near-end mobile station may be insufficient, causing undesirable noise to transmit to a far-end user.
Another area of focus involves the use of mobile stations by the hearing impaired. Current hearing aids comprise low power receivers that typically pick up background noise and radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) from mobile stations, particularly when the mobile station is in close proximity to the hearing aid. These problems are particularly problematic for high gain hearing aids because the higher the hearing aid gain, the more susceptible the hearing aid is to interference. Interference problems between hearing aids and mobile stations are well known and discussed in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,500 to Paul Dent et al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. As a result, it is desirable to provide a hearing aid that is also capable of interacting with one or more mobile stations without producing undesirable interference.
One approach to this problem uses a short-range wireless network, such as a Bluetooth® network, to provide a short-range communication link between a hearing aid and a mobile station. Bluetooth® is a universal radio interface that enables two or more wireless devices to communicate wirelessly via short-range ad hoc networks. Bluetooth® uses a polling based communication infrastructure to transmit digital data between the wireless devices. Jaap Haartsen in Ericsson Review No. 3, 1998, provides further details regarding Bluetooth® technology in “Bluetooth® —The universal radio interface for ad hoc, wireless connectivity,” which is herein incorporated by reference. Because Bluetooth® enables communication between a hearing aid and a mobile station while providing a physical distance between the two wireless devices, the undesirable interference between the hearing aid and the mobile station is diminished and/or prevented.
Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention incorporates additional processing in a wireless headset to improve noise suppression between wireless devices communicating in a short-range wireless network. One embodiment of the wireless headset may comprise a hearing aid to enable hearing-impaired individuals to utilize wireless devices without experiencing undesirable interference.